Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7318853" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 111Bredan returned to awareness with a rush of pain and the taste of blood in his mouth.  He was lying on a hard, flat surface, though he could feel jagged bits of stone pressing into his skin.  Loose rocks skittered away as he got his hands under him and pushed his head up slowly she he could look around.He was lying on a ledge that overlooked a huge cavern.  A thin sliver of light drifted down from above and behind him.  Seeing it brought back memory of what had happened.  They’d been fighting beetles in the mines, then the supply hut had exploded, and then the sinkhole had opened under him.  He must have hit his head and blacked out.He had no idea how long he’d been here.  There was a persistent buzzing in his head, which he’d assumed was a byproduct of the fall, but as his thoughts grew clearer he felt a dawning suspicion that had him creeping forward slowly to the edge of the ledge.What he saw sent a thrill of icy cold feeling through his gut.The floor of the cavern was alive with movement, hundreds of the black beetles crawling on and around and over each other.  But that wasn’t what froze him, what pushed him to the edge of irrational terror.The beetle was huge, easily big enough to trample a house, its mandibles large enough to seize a whole team of horses in their grasp.  It looked big enough to reach up and pluck him off his ledge without straining, though at the moment it was closer to the far end of the cavern and turned slightly away.  As it shifted he could see something imprinted upon the broad dome of its carapace.  Like its comparatively tiny brethren its shell was completely black, but the giant one had a pale marking on its back, a vague design that had the look of a rune or sigil.Bredan found himself staring intently at that marking.  It absorbed him despite the gibbering terror that threatened to seize control of his mind, distracting him from the danger he was in.  He stared at it until he began to feel dizzy.Finally, a scraping noise that sounded much too close shook him from his reverie.  He tore his attention from the horror of the giant beetle and the more prosaic threat of the army of “regular” beetles to study his more immediate surroundings.The ledge was about fifteen feet above the floor of the cavern, but the collapse of the sinkhole had left it surrounded by steep ramps of debris on each side.  Beetles were already clambering up those awkward mounds, and while some lost purchase on the loose rocks and dirt, others were managing a slow but constant ascent.  Even as he looked around him one crested the ledge, snapping its mandibles until Bredan lashed out blindly and kicked it free.  The bug tumbled away and rejoined the mass below, but he could hear several others nearing the ledge.Bredan scrambled to his feet.  He started to reach for his dagger, but hesitated.  A few feet away a beetle appeared, stumbling over the loose rocks that covered the rim of the ledge.  Another one popped up on the opposite side a moment later, probing with its mandibles.Bredan reached out his hand and closed his eyes.The beetles rushed forward to snap at his legs.  The first almost had his left boot in its grasp when a shaft of steel drove down, impaling it.  As the second insect lunged Bredan pivoted back and slashed his sword across its body, separating its head from its abdomen.  He kicked the pieces off the ledge, unbalancing a beetle that had almost gained the summit.More beetles were already approaching the ledge, but before Bredan could do anything further the cavern shook with a loud noise.  At first he thought that the deep, sonorous pulse presaged another collapse, but then he realized it was coming from the giant beetle.  As he watched the massive creature turned ponderously toward his redoubt.  Then it started toward him, slicing through the mass of beetles like a ship cresting waves on the sea.  It was probably killing a bunch of them with each step, but it hardly seemed to care about their fate.Bredan couldn’t wait for it to get to him.  The moment of distraction had allowed half a dozen more beetles to gain the ledge.  He slashed out with his sword, darting to avoid the snapping mandibles, but there were too many of them.  He felt a stabbing pain as one locked around his ankle, then another as a beetle lunged up and pierced his leg just below the skirt of his hauberk.  Roaring in both pain and defiance, he stabbed that one in the head and then spun to try and shake clear the one hanging onto his boot.  The beetle managed to hang on, but his wild movements knocked several others clear.  But the ledge was only so big, and more of the things kept coming.“Come on then, you bastards!” he yelled at them.For the next few moments he focused on swinging his sword while not getting pulled down by the attacking swarm.  He was aware that the giant beetle was getting slowly closer, could hear a heavy thud with each step it took, but he couldn’t spare it even a glance.  He would have to deal with it when it got to him.  For now it was all he could do to stay alive.  He darted along the very rim of the ledge, nearly sliding off when the loose rocks gave way, then retreated back against the wall of the cavern, kicking another beetle off as he went.  He finally managed to get solid rock at his back, but when he turned around he saw at least a dozen beetles pushing at him, too many to stop.Suddenly the light from above shifted and faded, deepening the shadows that filled the cavern.  Bredan looked up to see someone sliding through the breach before dropping through open air toward him.  It was Quellan, the half-orc clinging to a length of rope that rose up through the sinkhole to the surface above.  The cleric was unleashing a fresh rockslide as he came, and Bredan quickly shrank back and covered his head as a patter of debris began hitting around him.  The beetles were caught by the full force of that deluge, and some collapsed as solid pieces of stone cracked their armored shells.  Others were dislodged as they tried to get to Bredan, and tumbled back down off the ledge to the cavern floor below.The respite was only momentary, but as the surviving beetles thrust forward again the half-orc came to the end of the rope and dropped onto the ledge.  He landed awkwardly, but killed another beetle just by landing on it, and snapped a mandible off another as his armored body splayed out.  A beetle tried to take advantage by seizing hold of his neck, but before it could strike Bredan stabbed it with his sword.  He reached in and helped the half-orc to his feet.“Nice of you to drop in,” Bredan said as he kicked another beetle clear.“It sounded like you needed help,” Quellan replied.Another shadow announced Glori’s arrival.  She came down the rope with a bit more deliberation than Quellan, sending down a smaller spray of stone and dirt that hampered the beetles more than the two adventurers below.  Within moments she was dropping onto the ledge behind them, drawing her sword as she landed on her feet.“Hey guys, hope you saved some for me,” she said.“That won’t be a problem,” Bredan said as he sliced another beetle in two.“I think… what is THAT?” Quellan said.Bredan didn’t get a chance to respond before the giant beetle lunged forward, striking the front of the ledge with enough force to shake the stone.  For a moment he thought that the impact would tear the entire platform free, but other than shaking loose a fresh cascade of loose rocks it held.  The giant beetle thrust forward again, looming over them for a moment like some massive slab before descending to crush them all.</blockquote>

Verification